ARLINGTON, Va. -- Cruise lines will be required to send electronic
passenger and crew manifests to the Immigration and Naturalization
Service (INS), starting Jan. 1.
And the lines are calling on travel agents to collect the
additional passenger information for those lists.
It is the cruise line's responsibility to provide a completed
manifest to the INS 10 minutes before the ship departs, said Bob
Sharak, executive director of the Cruise Lines International
Association.
But, he said, "since the vast majority of our bookings come from
agents, we are asking that they collect this information."
"Agents are already collecting [a lot of these] data," Sharak
added. "It makes logistical sense."
The new INS requirements are part of the U.S. Border Security
Act, which was passed earlier this year.
In the past, passenger lists have been sent to several different
government agencies, said Angela Plott, vice president of the
International Council of Cruise Lines.
"What they're trying to do ... is tell [cruise lines] what to send
but to send it to one clearinghouse," she said.
Cruise lines still have to work with the various agencies, such
as the U.S. Coast Guard and Customs, Plott said.
The INS is requesting the guest's name, birth date, gender,
nationality, country of residence and passport or visa information,
including the document number, country and city of issuance and
date of expiration; a destination address in the U.S.; the ship
name and sailing date; and a reservation number.
Some sailings require guests to present only a photo ID and a
birth certificate; that requirement will not be changed, and the
fields requiring passport documentation can be left blank, Plott
said.
Gathering the data is "not a big deal," said Jan Hammond,
president of ASTA's South Florida chapter and general manager of
Sixth Star Travel in Plantation, Fla.
"It's just a matter of having another form and asking the
questions after we've made the sale," she said. "I can't see that
it is a huge burden."
Each cruise line will communicate with agents regarding that
line's particular data collection process, Sharak said.
Carnival Cruise Lines, for example, held a meeting to decide the
best way to disseminate information to its agent partners and
guests.
A Carnival spokesman said the line already provides about 80% of
the information requested to the INS -- but some of it currently is
given to the agency after the ship departs.